


Changelings

by Telesilla



Series: Headcanon Accepted [4]
Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: Gender or Sex Swap, Headcanon, M/M, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 16:14:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3816781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telesilla/pseuds/Telesilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buster and Tim are Changelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changelings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sophiahelix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophiahelix/gifts).



> For the AU Headcanon Meme on tumblr -- sophiahelix asked: How about an AU where certain people cyclically swap genders for a week every month?

1\. Buster hits puberty late–he’s almost 16 when he wakes up screaming in the middle of the night. It’s not just that he’s already turning into an exceptional baseball player, but he feels particularly betrayed because he’s the first Changeling in his family in three generations. They have to let him play ball, but the attempts to discourage him are not at all subtle. It just makes him try harder, makes him push himself even though it feels like he has to spend half his time adjusting to the shift in body mass and the way his center of gravity changes. At least he’s unusually regular, every 31 or 32 days, he’ll feel the ache in his joints that heralds the Change. After the first two times when he sneaked out of the house to sleep in the barn just before his Change, his dad and a couple of his uncles partitioned off a part of the barn and set up a bedroom for him. At first he’d just spent the two nights on either side of his five day Change out there, but then he took to sleeping out there through his whole Cycle.

2\. Tim’s young, just 12, when it first happens. His parents have been divorced for a couple years and his dad is already a master of denial. It helps that Tim’s just as skinny and wiry when he’s Cycling as he is when he’s not. His Change is easy and his Cycle usually last for six or seven days. In between he’s got anywhere from thirty to thirty five days, but Cycling or not, his dad works with him every day. Chris is a big believer in muscle memory; he has Tim repeating the same motions over and over and, although there are days when Tim just wants to curl up and die because his joints are aching and maybe golf would just be a lot easier in the end, it’s worth it because by the time scouts and recruiters start watching Tim’s high school starts, Tim can pitch as effectively when he’s Cycling as when he’s not.

3\. Kristen tries–she really does, even when he does the math and realizes that he’ll be cycling during Homecoming their senior year. They talk about marriage and she jokes about scheduling their wedding very very carefully. But the night of the dance, she doesn’t dance close with him and even though she uses his shape as an excuse–Buster’s kind of stacked when he’s Cycling–he knows it’s something different. He just kisses her hand when he drops her off at home and isn’t surprised when she tearfully breaks up with him the next week. He tells himself it’s easier this way; he’s been accepted at FSU on a full scholarship and not having a full time relationship will make things easier. That night, he touches himself for the first time during a Cycle and it probably isn’t any less awkward than it would have been with Kristen.

4\. Bellvue’s not Seattle but it’s not Leesburg either. Tim finds friends who accept him as he is; his little circle includes a girl Changeling. In their junior year, she and Tim start getting stoned and fooling around. It’s not serious, but by the time Tim’s a senior, they’ve fucked pretty much every way they can and Tim’s pretty comfortable calling himself a bisexual. To be honest, though, he kind of liked the getting stoned part more. Sex is fun and drugs are fun but it turns out he really does agree with his dad–pitching is what’s important. 

5\. Tim and Buster are synced up on November 1, 2010. And it’s not like Tim hasn’t been looking at Buster–cycling or not–for months, but as he lifts the trophy, his champagne-soaked muscle shirt clinging wetly to his torso, Tim sees Buster looking at him–really looking at him. Later that night, Tim’s surprised at the way his fingers shake as he carefully unbraids Buster’s sticky, tangled hair. “It’s okay,” he says, kissing the back of Buster’s neck. Tim’s not even sure which of them he’s talking to, but when Buster says, “Yeah, I think it will,” he sounds steady and sure.

**Author's Note:**

> Of all of these, this is the AU I'm most likely to write more in. Drop me a comment if you'd be interested in reading more.


End file.
